1. Yes, I do have an Arduino, it is the Arduino uno r3 and the Arduino nano.

2. No, I don't know anyone else that knows how to program the Arduino.

3. Yes, I've installed the Arduino software.

4. Yes, I've tried examples, but they didn't help.

What I mean by "all kinds of stuff" is that I've tried learning through online classes, YouTube videos, and just scrolling through the internet. I just want help on the basics so I can start making things.

Like beacon_dave says, some more information is always helpful and there are many members of Element14 who are willing to help you along bit-by-bit (we've all been stuck on something at times ).

Make a blog post on Element14 (or by replying below to your own post) with what article you are trying to follow and then include plenty of photos, screen shots and description of how far you get....you'll get a response for sure that should gradually get you over each hurdle and as you do so hopefully you'll learn why you got stuck. Before too long you'll hopefully be building all sorts of great stuff.

Kits like the Sparkfun Inventors Kit are expensive but a quick way to learn basics. I have used them to complete a beginner level course in one weekend. If you can’t afford the kit then try going through the published workbook with what you have at hand and order or substitute other parts as you get them.

The best way though is to just try things. If you get stuck on something then ask a specific question that states what you are trying to do, what didn’t work, what you tried doing to resolve it, code used, parts used, and so on. This will get better responses on the forum.

As well as the tips from Scott and Dave, it may be worth stepping back from it and getting familiarised with some C coding basics on a computer running Linux (e.g. Raspberry Pi).

C only has about 30 keywords, so it is possible to at least some gain familiarity with it within days.

I learned with "Problem Solving and Program Design in C" (no need to buy the latest edition, if older edition used copies are cheaper).

It is a foundation basically.

I'm only suggesting that book as an example, because that's what the place I studied at recommended, and I learned a lot from it, although there could be newer books out there that are just as good or better.

I've been programming computers since the mid 80's (Apple II and the like), but I still find it helpful to sometimes take a step back and take a basic intro course to help get a better grip on things. If it's easy, just go through the courses faster.

One other thing I enjoyed when I got back into learning about circuitry was the 130-in-one type kits (also 120-in-one etc etc). They are basically a lot of components on a board, and you connect wires between springs to make circuits. The book that came with mine had a lot of good examples that showed not only which springs to connect, but also how that looked as a real circuit diagram, and explained how it all worked. The "130" stood for how many projects were included in the book.